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Eyes were abundant on this blackened creature’s body, covering it from what should be its head to what should be its toes. They were ever present, watchful, constantly peering and beholding. The creature was featureless, save for the eyes and long black and white streaked hair flowing around it as it hovered above the ground. It wasn’t human, not anymore. The eyes never blinked, always focused on seeing and watching. Maybe this creature was never human.
Right now, it was watching its so-called friends. Its friends were looking back at it in horror, or awe, or even wonder. The creature didn’t know what expression it was seeing from its peers. They all probably were afraid of it now, however, it knew this wasn’t a form it could control. The creature couldn’t just stop being this way whenever it wanted. The creature hungered. It needed fear as one needs air to breathe. It wasn’t sensing any fear from its peers, which was surprising to the creature. It could not feast on this. Its head was pounding, it felt like it could explode.
“Jon?” One of them piped up. The creature, known as Jon to these people, focused on the man saying its name. It was a man named Tim Stoker. Jon was good friends with this man. They had been through hell and back. It didn’t speak or acknowledge Tim, only focusing on him.
“Are you… Even you right now?” Tim asked, as if Jon was someone else.
“I… Am me. I am who you call ‘Jon’.” It spoke slowly through a mouth it didn’t have. How was it speaking? It knew everything, but didn’t seem to know that. “I feel… Hunger.”
“Oh, Jon, what happened to you? We didn’t expect you to come back to the office like this.” Sasha said, worriedly.
“The Eye has claimed me. It is one with me now.” Jon said. “I hunger.”
“Yeah, we got that, but… You don’t have a mouth. What do you eat?” Martin asked.
“Fear, presumably.” Jon said. “You don’t happen to… Have a statement nearby, do you?”
Tim went to his desk and rummaged around his papers. “Here. Is that how this works? I just give you this and you read it?” He asked, handing the paper statement to Jon.
Jon took the paper and grabbed a tape recorder. It read the statement aloud, a piercing static noise filling each of the assistants’ ears as it read about a particularly gruesome infestation and the fear of rot seeping into the victims skin and bone. Once it was done, the static cleared, and Jon looked a little less like some eldritch monster. It still had some eyes covering it, but it mostly resembled a human now. It looked around.
“I’m sorry you all had to witness this… I didn’t think you’d all be working right now.” Jon said, worried. While he Knew they weren’t afraid of it, it still felt guilty. “I’m sorry for what I’ve become.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about that.” Tim said. “Yeah it was surprising seeing you like that, and this is all new and worrying, it’s not like we’re going to leave you in the dust just because you’ve grown a few eyes.”
“I’d say a few is an understatement.” Martin stated matter of factly.
Tim rolled his eyes with a bit of a smile. “Hush, you know what I meant.”
“You’re not upset? I’ve…” Jon stammered. “I’ve become a monster. I feed off of fear now. I literally am not a human anymore.”
“Do you still like us even though we have things that make us unique?” Sasha asked.
“Well, no, of course not, but this is-”
“Ah ah ah-” Sasha interrupted. “You said no. So why should we dislike your uniqueness? Yes it’s… Different, but as Tim said, it’s not like we’re suddenly going to hate you now. We’ve all been through a lot, Elias has really tortured us and ensured we have a miserable life, and has now made it so that you’re like this. We’re in this hell together, no matter what. Right guys?”
Tim nodded. “Sash’s right.”
Martin nodded along with Tim. “She’s got a point, you know. You’re still you under the eyes.”
“Really?” Jon asked. “How do you know I’m still me?”
“We just do. You don’t stop being you just because you’ve changed.” Martin replied. “We still like you.”
“Oh.” Jon said quietly, taking a moment to process what everyone had been saying. “Oh.”
“How about we leave early and you can all come over to my place for some takeout?” Tim said.
“What about work?” Jon asked.
“As if Elias gives a shit. Let’s go guys.” Tim said, grabbing his keys and heading toward the stairway out.
The rest of the group followed, and off they went to Tim’s. They had a big nice dinner.
Nothing was going to make them hate each other. No matter how hard life tried.